Candidates for the Bay of Quinte riding in the 2025 provincial election took part in a debate at the Empire Theatre in Belleville on Tuesday.
Taking part in the debate were the Ontario PC’s incumbent Tyler Allsopp, the Ontario Liberals’ David O’Neill, the Ontario NDP’s Amanda Robertson, and the Ontario Green Party’s Lori Borthwick.
Moderating the event was the Belleville Chamber of Commerce in partnership with Central Lakes Association of Realtors and YourTV Quinte.
The debate was formatted as follows:
- Each candidate presented an opening statement for two minutes each
- A question and answer section that saw each candidate having a chance to be the first to answer a question, with the initial responder getting two minutes, followed by one-minute responses from the other candidates, and a one-minute rebuttal from the initial responder. The questions were randomly drawn.
- An independent questions section where the order of who answered first was selected randomly for each question and each candidate having a minute to respond. Questions were once again randomly drawn.
- Closing statements from each candidate for two minutes each
All the questions were submitted either online or at the dropbox available at the theatre before the debate began. No questions were taken from the floor.
This saw a number of topics being addressed during the debate ranging from healthcare, affordable housing, community safety, the cost of living, and collaboration across party lines among others.
One other topic that was addressed at the debate was the importance of rural colleges like Loyalist College for workforce development and economic growth.
Ontario PC’s incumbent Tyler Allsopp speaking at the debate involving Bay of Quinte provincial riding candidates at Empire Theatre. February 18, 2025. (Photo: Zach McGibbon/Quinte News)
Ontario PC’s incumbent Tyler Allsopp said that colleges like Loyalist College are critical to the success of the economy.
He spoke of the federal cap on international study permits and was critical of federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller for “running down Ontario Colleges and not clearly defining the difference between public community colleges and career colleges who have operated under a different rule set.”
Allsopp says there have been a number of colleges that have been making sure that they haven’t been bringing in too many international students that would affect their local housing and labour markets.
“So the challenge isn’t necessarily the cap that’s been introduced. It’s moreso the fact that, because of those comments, a lot of international students no longer want to come to Canada to study, and that really affects a lot of the small northern and rural colleges,” Allsopp said.
“So we are absolutely going to need to step in and take a look at what the funding need is for them, make sure that they’re properly supported, because we know it’s a huge economic driver for the region.”
Ontario Green Party’s Lori Borthwick speaking at the debate involving Bay of Quinte provincial riding candidates at Empire Theatre. February 18, 2025. (Photo: Zach McGibbon/Quinte News)
The Greens’ Lori Borthwick says while the government has made investments into colleges, she says it is not enough.
“The first thing we would do is reverse the Ford government’s cuts to OSAP, convert the loans to grants for low- and middle-income students, and eliminate interest charges on student debt,” Borthwick explained.
“We would increase immediately the funding to our colleges to 20% and change the way that they can build the government to a pay-per-student funding model. It is unfair that we have been expecting international students to fund our college and university programs in Ontario. We must fight for fairness, and we will fund them appropriately so they’re there for all of our youth.”
Ontario NDP’s Amanda Robertson speaking at the debate involving Bay of Quinte provincial riding candidates at Empire Theatre. February 18, 2025. (Photo: Zach McGibbon/Quinte News)
The NDP’s Amanda Robertson also said that the government was underfunding post secondary education institutions and that Loyalist was experiencing that underfunding in real time. She was critical of Premier Doug Ford about his comments on the programs that were cut by different colleges.
“We had a leaders debate (Monday night) where we have Doug Ford saying that ‘oh well, post secondary education institutions, they’re just cutting their basket weaving courses and programs.’ We know that here at Loyalist, it’s not basket weaving, it’s our culinary arts, it’s some of our carpentry programs. These are programs that we are relying on, and we need to make sure that we have strong representation,” Robertson said.
“If Doug Ford is thinking that it’s just basket weaving that we’re losing in the province of Ontario, then either he is very out of touch, or we don’t have a representative who has been letting him know that these are real cuts we’re facing.”
Ontario Liberal’s David O’Neill speaking at the debate involving Bay of Quinte provincial riding candidates at Empire Theatre. February 18, 2025. (Photo: Zach McGibbon/Quinte News)
The Liberals’ David O’Neil echoed comments from the Greens and the NDP, while explaining his party’s plan.
“We know Loyalist is underfunded. The Ford government cut 10% tuition, they froze tuition and didn’t replace any of those numbers. The base funding per capita is the lowest in all the provinces.”
“Our plan would be to eliminate interest on OSAP loans, debt repayment on OSAP loans would begin until you meet under $$50,000 a year, and also lower the middle class income tax rate by 22% to help people starting out.”
When given the chance for a rebuttal, Allsopp said he would advocate for solving the issues surrounding rural colleges at Queen’s Park if reelected.
You can listen to the full debate below:
Audio Player